Something has gone terribly wrong at Jusendo. Now de-aged and wanted dead because of a case of mistaken identity, Ranma must learn more about this familiar but strange world. Found by one of the three Legendary Sannin, what impact would the Wild Horse have on the Naruto Universe with a secret hidden in Ranma's own body?

Special thanks to Arcanasage and Azaggthoth, Arcana because he worked on this even with school and the flu bearing down on his ass and Azaggthoth who did the edited and computer crash forcing him to painfully power through it again. Above and beyond there gentlemens. Above and beyond.

Ranma blinked and found himself back in his mind scape. Looking down, he once more savored the feeling of being a male. For that instant he reveled in his true gender... until he recalled what happened.

"Baka Tsunade..." Ranma grumbled as he surveyed the reconstruction of the Tendo's yard he had found himself in. He had thought that the Slug Sannin was going to forgive him. He had been wrong apparently, the woman had trapped him and dole out her punishment. It wasn't anything he hadn't had before and to be honest he suffered worse from the three baka's back on his home world.

It was then he Ranma saw a sight he couldn't quite believe. There was Herb, in the same girl form that he'd seen her for the past couple of years, doing laundry of all things. Wasn't this all in his mind?

"Oh, Saotome." Herb, with her outfit over layered by one of Kasumi's frilly aprons, greeted the pig-tailed boy. "Back to test your mettle against them again?"

A motion of her head had it pointed to the Dojo that was oddly silent.

"Hah!" The Child Saffron barked a laugh as he made his way up to the trio from the Tendo living room. "You weren't paying attention Lord Herb but Saotome here was punished by his companion just now, hence his consciousness drifted here."

"I had warned you it was a bad idea." Herb-chan said lightly as she took out some clips and aired out some bedsheets to dry. "And now you have put yourself in a most precarious position... if they find out what's inside of you..."

Ranma, however, was still looking at Herb doing laundry that SHOULD have been non-existent. This WAS his mindscape, Right? Maybe Tsunade beat him worse then he thought... speaking of Tsunade, Herb's words registered and he gave Herb an even look.

"I will tell them why I left." Ranma said after recovering from the odd sight. "I owe them that much."

"I still say it's a mistake." Herb stated as she finished hanging all the laundry to dry as a sudden light breeze started to stir in the yard. "These... shinobi are a contemptuous lot. No concept of honor. If they turn on you, do not say I didn't warn you."

"I trust Tsunade." Ranma said firmly, folding his arms as he looked levelly at his two 'guests'. Closing his eyes he forced himself back to consciousness, leaving an empty spot where he had stood.

"I am surprised you did not push harder to not be discovered." Saffron said with a slight tone of surprise in his voice as he sat on the Tendo patio, watching the 'sky'. That was when he saw Herb's confident smirk.

"Saotome is free to tell them anything he wants." Herb said smugly as she grabbed the laundry basket and put it on her side. Then she turned to give Saffron a smirk. " Believing him, however, is a completely different matter. After all, Kaguya's children wouldn't even know where to begin searching."

Saffron looked puzzled before his eyes lit up in understanding. A moment later his smirk matched that of Herb.

***** Konoha *****

Ranma woke up abruptly and, for a moment, thought she was out in the wilderness again only to find herself staring puzzlingly at an unfamiliar ceiling. "Wha?" She thought groggily to herself before recalling what happened.

"Mmmmm... Ranma-chan so fuwah fuwah..."

Darting her eyes immediately to the voice Ranma found herself looking down at the old familiar form of her master, the legendary slug princess, Tsunade Senju. Immediately a tick developed on her head as she remembered exactly what her Sensei's slender yet powerful arms had done to her.

Honestly, she had been willing to take her licks from both from Tsunade AND Shizune when she found them. In fact, she still owed them an explanation, but at least she was now back in familiar territory. If the Slug Sannin had not forgiven her then she would not be in bed with the woman, nor would the woman be holding onto her possessively.

Grinning evilly, Ranma lowered her head down to her Sensei's ear and bellowed her old wake up greeting. "TSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-CHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Several things immediately happened that Ranma did not account for. First, Tsunade's grip on her tightened and she was dragged to the ceiling her with her. Second, the room was instantly flooded with masked people looking poised for battle at a moment's notice.

"Hokage-sama! We heard a loud commotion!" A man in a penguin mask said as his eyes darted around, kunai and at the ready to engage possible threats.

Tsunade's eyes darted back and forth before looking at the bundle of red in her arms and shook her head. "At ease, it was just my wayward student. In fact, expect a lot more 'commotions' like that from now on."

"As you say Hokage-sama." The Penguin masked man said never once relaxing before, in a puff of smoke, he and his squad disappeared.

'Body flicker.' Ranma identified immediately before she felt her mentor drop down from the ceiling and place her steadily on her own two feet. It was then that both former master and student were finally reunited a second time. They both examined each other, taking in the changes they may have missed before when emotions were running hotter.

"They're the same as ever, your medical skills have obviously eroded over the past couple of years." Tsunade crossed her arms across her chest while taking in the redhead now in a truly awakened state.

"Pfff, I'll have you know my medical skills are just fine." Ranma said defensively. She had kept up with her studies after all. Well, as much as she could. She hadn't ever been interested in becoming a true expert by any means but she could do minor surgical procedures.

"We'll see about that." Tsunade stated then harrumphed as she beckoned for Ranma to follow her out of the room and to the kitchen.

Ranma, after close to three years, was greeted to the sight of Shizune making breakfast with Tonton laying out the plates with her mouth. Clever little pig.

"Ah, Ranma-chan, good morning!" Shizune said cheerfully, her smile beaming as she prepared an elegant spread of food.

"Hey Shizune." Ranma greeted her easily as they all settle down at the breakfast table. The group ate in companionable silence, as if she had not been missing for years. Which was when the battle for breakfast began as Ranma's hand sped out to devour the food and was once against facing the united Tsunade-Shizune alliance to not only beat her assault back but pillage from her own plate. AS if.

It was this scene that Naruto and Sakura walked into, after having been cleared by the Hokage's guard detail. There at the dining table, over a delicious looking meal. was the normally cool Shizune viciously trading blows with the redhead form yesterday while Tsunade was attacking the girl from the other side. Amazingly enough all three sets of hands were blurring, even to their well trained eyes. They could make out that the food was vanishing over the course of the skirmish and the trio were busy munching away while they scuffled.

"Oh hey, think I can get some breakfast too?" Naruto asked, eyes wide. This looked like a fun food fight. As he jaunted happily to the table and reached out for some miso soup.

Sakura jumped when Naruto's body was embedded into the wall right next to her. That was...

"Ow..." Naruto said flatly as he peeled himself from off the wall, shaking his head. He had been quick enough to see what happened, just not quick enough to defend himself from it. The pretty redhead's fist had been the first to hammer into his face, dazing him, followed up by a flick of his Ba-chan's fingers to send him flying off. "Hey!" He shouted indignantly as he rolled up his sleeves and made to get some breakfast.

Sakura jumped again as Naruto's body was now embedded into the wall on the other side of her, this time making a running man pose.

"Grrr!" Naruto said as he peeled himself off the wall. His ba-chan was having fun and no one was letting him in on it? They acted like he wasn't even there! Well he'd show them! "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Immediately the room was flooded with an army of Naruto's, they were even lining up out of the door.

As one the battle over breakfast stopped. Ranma, Tsunade and Shizune watched as the new and sizable army of blond whiskered boys surrounded them on all side. A glance from Ranma to Tsunade, who in turn looked to Shizune, who in then turned to Tonton, who Buhi'ed and bumped her snout against Ranma's leg. The previously warring 'kingdoms', as one, turned to look at the blond intruder. The United Ranma-Tsunada-Shizune faction had now been formed.

Naruto knew he had numerical superiority, yet somehow, the three women in front of him looked pretty intimidating. Even his clones took an involuntary step back and they were supposed to be fodder!

"MEN!" The main Naruto shouted as he turned to face his army of clones. "No mercy! We will get some breakfast! Do not let up, do not stop! To your dying breath! CHARGE!"

"We who are about to die, SALUTE YOU!" The Naruto army yelled as they charged the three women.

++++ After Breakfast ++++

"That was certainly fun, wasn't it Tonton?" Shizune said as she washed the dishes from their breakfast from earlier.

"Buhi!" The pink pig with the necklace nodded happily.

"So mean... not even a single morsel." Naruto muttered dejectedly as he was hugging his knees in a corner of the room. "What am I going to have for breakfast now?"

Ranma and Tsunade were sipping at after meal coffee. Sakura had been seated next to them after the attack of the clones had failed. Hard.

"Ranma-senpai was it?" Sakura ventured out hesitantly, looking at the shorter redhead as the teacher was too busy reading the horse race results from this morning's paper.

"Hmm?" Ranma said surprised before she turned her attention to the pink hair girl. "Senpai?"

"She doesn't know about you Sakura-chan," Shizune explained as she continued to scrub other dishes, "She ran away before we ever got to Konoha."

"I didn't run!" Ranma said defensively. "I had good reason for leaving."

"I'm sorry but a note that just says, 'Have something important to do, be back when I'm finished' does not CUT IT." Shizune said darkly. The dish in her hand cracked in two. "Oops."

Ranma sweated at that. Okay, so it had not been the best note to write. Honestly though, she hadn't thought she'd be gone that long... Looking back to the pink haired girl who was a bit taller than her but flatter as well, she saw the girl was looking at her with something akin to... respect? "So, Sakura was it? What did you learn from the booby monster over here?"

WHAP!

"Itee..." Ranma rubbed her head where Tsunade had smacked her with a rolled up newspaper.

"Be grateful brat!" Tsunade snapped with a grin before unrolling the newspaper and flicking it out to read again. "Besides, if you're still claiming to be a guy, then you should have enjoyed all those times you rested between them no?"

"Hey! I am a guy!" Ranma said shot back and then looked between both Tsunade and Shizune. "And I am still holding you to your promise! Both of you!"

"Yeah yeah." Tsunade waved off the girl's retort while Shizune only gave Ranma an indulgent smile. "Those C-cups of yours SCREAM guy. Why that pale skin, those curves and the shape of your body CLEARLY say you're a man!"

Sakura meanwhile was looking at her Senpai oddly. Now, she might have thought Haku was a girl at first but upon further reflection with her new medical knowledge she could tell who was a boy and who was a girl. At least Haku could have passed for a flat chested girl, her Senpai's two jutting breasts were a clear sign of gender. Was her senpai crazy?

Seeing Sakura's look, Tsunade grinned. "Well, all that aside, introduce yourself to your kouhai brat. You're now responsible for her guidance, so set a good example."

Ranma looked over to the pink haired girl who seemed to be giving her a respectful look. That look kind of startled her. Respect? Her? With a grin, she decided she could get use to this. "The name is Ranma Saotome, the greatest martial artist in this world!" She said thumbing her chest.

WHAP!

"Taijutsu EXPERT!" Tsunade corrected again as she unrolled the newspaper, again, to continue to see how else she was doing. To her ever growing depression, even 'gispy danger' failed her. Why couldn't she win a bet for once?!

"Hey, a taijutsu expert means they are just good at hand to hand, I am a martial ARTIST!" Ranma shouted back as she rubbed the spot where Tsunade hit her. "Or should I teach you what that means again Tsu-chan?" She said with a grin.

"Uhh... huh?" Sakura questioned at the scene. She'd been about to introduce herself formally, to put herself in her senpai's care but the banter between her Sensei and the girl started up again. Didn't the girl know Tsunade was ninja royalty and that it was disrespectful to address her so crassly?

"Don't worry Sakura, they're always like this." Shizune explained to the puzzled girl, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "Honestly it's really therapeutic for Tsunade-sama to vent like this and it's better than the alternative, which is her drinking."

Sakura watched as the redhead pressed her head against Tsunade's own, repeating the challenge of the legendary Sannin to a duel.

"Lead on Tsu-chan!" Ranma growled.

"Follow me if you can, brat!" Tsunade said before she stood up and body flickered away.

Ranma blinked then narrowed her eyes. "Baka!" She growled as she jumped out the window and speed off, tracking Tsunade's chakra signature. Unfortunately body flicker was one of those moves she still had a hard time using due to how much chakra she needed and what she had to do to use it.

Naruto had slowly come out of his funk to notice that the redhead was talking to his Ba-chan like he did. He decided to follow right away, interested in seeing this fight. Shizune touched Sakura's shoulder and a moment later the two were body flickered right to training ground 75. Looking around, it seemed like it was just an open patch of ground with lots of sand and a pond a little distance away.

Tsunade was already at the field waiting for her other student and felt the girl closing in on her quickly. Moments later she saw the redhead jump down in front of her followed by a team of Anbu who were hot on her heels. Rising her hand up, Tsunade let the Anbu know it was okay.

Ranma had ignored the Shinobi that were following her after she'd realized that her teacher was not only testing her speed but also her evasion ability. She noted that the woman who had bought Dango off of her was also hot on her heels, along with a familiar looking purple haired woman with a Katana strapped to her back. The rest of the crowd was comprised of animal masked people.

"That's my student, she's a Konoha Genin." Tsunade announced to the Shinobi and was pleased on two fronts. The first being the quick reaction time of the Anbu and the other is Ranma's inability to get caught. She was not, however, pleased with Ranma's inability to body flicker. She would have thought the girl had learned it by now.

"As you say Hokage-sama." The slightly winded Anbu squad nodded and broke apart, going back to their posts. She could already feel her personal guard had body flickered with her a moment she'd done so.

"This girl is your student Hokage-sama?" Anko asked, surprised to see the same redhead from the day before. She then realized the girl had expertly deceived her with her 'wide eyed country bumpkin' tourist routine. She didn't know whether to feel appalled at being suckered or begrudging admiration. While she hated the snake bastard he had taught her well and noticing subtle hints of deception was at the top of her skill set list. Undecided, she came up with a compromise, it was all the Dango's fault. They distracted her... yes, that was it.

Yugao Uzuki, however, was of a different mindset. The girl was an unknown and was jumping across Konoha, pursued by Anbu. She could have left them to catch her but it was that vibrant shade of red had reminded her of a certain young girl that she had failed in protecting. The Third Hokage had absolved her and Dog of their responsibility, after all they were facing one of the famous swordsmen of the mist, but personally she had felt attached to the little girl. She'd felt bad at not being able to track down any other signs of her when they came back later. With Konoha's resources limited, the Hokage had ended the search after a week. However, since then Yugao had kept an eye out for any red haired girls just in case.

"Still can't body flicker yet I see..." Tsunade 'hmm'ed as she walked around Ranma, assessing her. "Although you don't look winded in the slightest, which is good. Stamina has improved and from this morning, reflexes along with speed."

"Oi, what's going on Shizune-san?" Anko asked as she walked up to the head of Konoha's medic-nin corp as she saw Tsunade assessing the girl. If she was a student shouldn't the Fifth know the redhead's ability already?

Sakura tried to nondescriptly eavesdrop while keeping her attention on her teacher and her other Senpai, who was nodding at Tsunade's critique.

"That's Tsunade-sama's student, she has... been on a trip and just recently got back in town." Shizune said easily. "It's been a while so now Tsunade-sama is going to assess her skills."

That peaked Anko's interest. She'd seen the Haruno girl's improvement under the Sannin. Turning around she saw one of her few friends, Yugao Uzuki, had also remained behind and was scrutinizing the redhead. Anko shook her head softly, the girl had never gotten over her failure to escort that Uzu survivor to Konoha and one of her little quirks was to scrutinizing every red haired little girl she came across as the years passed.

"Hmmm, alright then. Use chakra based skills only. I want to see how well your abilities developed." Tsunade ordered as she jumped back easily. She shrugged off her official 'Hokage' robe to fling it to Shizune, who caught it easily.

Ranma nodded and started her hand signs quickly before slamming her hand into the ground. She watched as the ground beneath Tsunade opened up and grabbed Tsunade in powerful hold.

Tsunade just rolled her eyes and gave Ranma a flat look. "You pulled this crap two years a - whoa!" She was interrupted by the need to duck her head as stone spears formed from the ground and threatened to skewer her head. Looking back at the redhead, she saw the little girl was smirking.

"You were saying Tsu-chan?" Ranma said raising an eye brow as she dusted her hands.

"Not a bad start brat. I guess I should use a bit more of my strength." With an easy flex of her muscles and a grin, Tsunade broke free from the earth prison, impressing their audience.

"Waiiiitttt I wanna seeee!" Naruto shouted as he finally arrived. He wasn't alone, as Tenten and Rock Lee were with him.

"Yosh! Hokage-sama! I heard you were battling one of your students with the Will of Fire!" Rock Lee called out respectfully. "It can only help me better myself to see Hokage-sama in action!"

Tenten just shook her head at Lee's antics. But then, to get to see the legendary Slug Princess in action? Why, it was something that couldn't be missed.

"You sure you want this many people here to see me beat your ass into the ground?" Ranma asked cockily, surprising some of the youngsters and interesting the two older women.

"I dunno, let's see if you still have that immunity." Tsunade said before quickly running trough a hand sign pattern and then finished off with by clapping her hands together.

Everyone saw the redhead freeze for a split second before shaking her head. "Yep, same ole same ole." Ranma drawled as she felt Tsunade's Genjutsu attack try to take hold of her mind. Once again Suzaku burned it away instantly. To the phoenix beast, it was an affront to try and twist their mind with chakra.

"Well now that I know you still have that, I guess I'll see how far you've come!" Tsunade called easily before throwing out a barrage of shuriken aimed to strike all of Ranma's vital points.

Yugao and Anko's eyes narrowed as they saw the kawamari performed a split second before the swarm of projectiles hit the girl.

Tsunade instantly turned around and made to clothesline the redhead, only to be stopped by the girl's own chakra enhanced strength before being pushed away. It was a split second later when Tsunade saw her long lost student quickly flow into another set of hand seals.

"Hydra no Jutsu!" Ranma yelled after flashing trough twelve consecutive signs then watched as a giant flame serpent coiled from the palm of her hand and charged toward her teacher.

Shaking her head at another familiar attack, Tsunade cocked her head back and punched the fire dragon's snout, making it explode and fall limply. "Have to do better than that bra-huh?" She turned around and saw the dragon... now sporting two heads instead of the one she'd just smashed in. Still, two heads didn't matter. She jumped up at the fire serpent and destroyed the left head with the back of her hand and the right had with a kick from her feet.

Ranma, in the meantime, had seen a little spring lake nearby and ran to it quickly as Tsunade was distracted by her little jutsu trick.

Sakura was looking in admiration as the serpent's two heads turned into a four, then as her mentor destroyed the four heads they turned into eight.

Anko had to smile at that. A unique way to use the attack while making sure the jutsu was not a throw away with one stroke. However, she was all but certain the cost was pretty high to begin with to perform that trick.

Tsunade was grinning as she was now facing off against sixteen flaming dragon heads that were each snapping at her as quick as a cobra. Interesting as it was however, that appeared to be the limit of that technique. From then, every head she had destroyed was now permanently gone. No more splitting.

Reaching into her Chakra store, Ranma used yet another massive chunk and stood in the water as she did a long and complex series of hand signs while Tsunade was moving to finish off her hydra. Finishing the series, she smashed her hand into the water.

The moment Tsunade finished off Ranma's multi-headed snake was the moment she saw a dragon made of ice. This one came slithering at her, with Ranma standing on top of it's head. It kind of reminded her of an ice version of Manda as it reared it's head back to chomp down on her. With a smirk of her own, she did her own hand sign and called upon a massive fire ball to launch at ice dragon.

"Gotcha!" Ranma yelled from on top of the dragon's head and blazed trough a complex series of hand signs, even as the fireball closed in on her dragon courtesy of Tsunade. She jumped off her ride, even as the fiery attack smashed into it, and watched as science took over. With a manic grin she use the last of her chakra stores and clapped her hands together as mini storm started to rain down on Tsunade from the melted ice.

Tsunade was smirking when she felt a little pricking sensation on her arms. Looking down she saw there was a thin stab mark on her arms, not unlike a small senbon needle. Next was a stinging sensation on her head, then on her face. It was when a single droplet of the water passed her vision that she noticed the difference. Instead of the oval pear shape, the water drop looked like a sharp needle. Reacting quickly Tsunade did a quick hand sign and smashed the ground with it, creating a small earthen bunker over her head to wait out the rest of the needle rain.

Multiple sounds of something heavy could be heard striking Tsunade's dirt shield while Anko and Yugao whistled in appreciation. The torrent of sharp needle strikes pinged on top of the Hokage's dirt shield. That was a pretty complex maneuver but deadly. Anko was already thinking of ways such a technique could be used for silent assassination when it's raining and people were not suspecting the very water that was falling on them could kill them.

There were water attacks to be sure but that finely tuned by a Genin?

"Annnd I'm out!" Ranma chirped cheerfully as she dusted her hands together. She watched as the chakra infused rain drops ran out of energy and returned back to their natural shapes. The technique was only good for a few seconds at the most. It was, after all, only designed to turn people into switch cheese.

Apparently Ranma's comment made Sakura's jaw drop. While her technique was powerful, Ranma's endurance and reserves appeared to be miniscule. And this was supposed to be her Senpai?

Tsunade walked out from her cover and nodded in approval. Already the cuts on her cheek and arms were healed thanks to her natural ability. "Impressive, you expanded on what you worked before and made it deadlier. A-rank in terms of lethality at most, especially that last one."

"Didn't I tell you? I'm the best!" Ranma declared, puffing her chest out not and knowing that she made Sakura feel self-conscience by the display.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But your chakra reserves are almost at the same level as when you left. Have you not been practicing?" Tsunade asked with demanding eyes.

Ranma began to fidget on the spot and loosened the collar around her neck. "Well... umm, you know, that's cause... the, umm, reason why I kinda had to go... yeah." She said uncomfortably.

Tsunade, however, did not look pleased.

"Look, lemme show you something I learned. You're gonna love this!" Ranma said quickly trying to appease her mentor and friend. Clearing her throat and raising her hand she smirked, they're gonna be so surprised. "Kasai Koramu!"

A moment of silence later, where absolutely nothing happened, had Tsunade glaring flatly at her. "And what was that supposed to do exactly?"

"Eh?" Ranma blinked in surprise, looking up at her hand where a column of fire was supposed to pour forth like water. Closing her eyes, she found herself in front of her mindscape's version of the Tendo Dojo.

"Hey, what's going on here?!" Ranma demanded as he barged into the Dojo. The two god beasts were sitting in meditative poses, for once not fighting. That made the pig tail boy do a double take.

Suzaku and Seiryuu opened their eyes and looked at the pig tailed boy's interruption.

"It is best not to cause too much of a commotion right now, we are beset by enemies on all sides." Seiryuu said in her soft deadly tone of voice.

Suzaku nodded at Seiryuu's explanation.

"You," Ranma said pointing to the phoenix god, "Didn't you say I could use those fire attacks because I earned them?"

Suzaku gave Ranma a flat glare. "Yes I did and you can use them. When you are in actual combat. My awe inspiring might is not something for you to show off as if some parlor trick." He stated imperiously. His distaste for Ranma plain in his voice.

Giving Suzaku the middle finger, Ranma looked at Seiryuu who nodded in agreement with Suzaku's assessment. "Pricks." Ranma declared as he closed the door to the Dojo and barred the entrance once more with the Gekkaja and Kinjakan.

Closing his eyes, he opened it again to a changed view of Tsunade looking at her expectantly. "Ah shit, it's pretty cool when I get the chance to show you." Ranma said lamely before perking up. "Now can I use the rest of my real abilities?"

Sakura perked up at hearing the girl's declaration. Tenten had not been impressed by Tsunade's other disciple but Lee actually thought her attacks were pretty interesting, despite her small reserves.

"So the girl, instead of spacing out her chakra decided to use it for a few high level attacks instead?" Anko asked Shizune, who nodded.

"It appeared to work best that way for Ranma-chan, you'll see why in a minute." Shizune hinted as she saw the redhead looking at their teacher.

'That girl must be crazy if she thinks she can take Baa-chan in a taijutsu fight, ain't that right fox?' Naruto though to his oddly silent passenger. Naruto remembered Tsunade's taijutsu skill was no laughing matter, partly from having been on the receiving end of several of her attacks. Still it was odd that the kyuubi, which had been talking to him, had suddenly gone silent the exact moment the redhead closed her eyes. 'Yoooo hooo Fox~~~~?'

Within the seals on Naruto's stomach and behind a cage's bars, the Nine Tailed Fox had gone silent yet it shifted uneasily in it's prison. It had felt a spike of energy just now. Different. Wrong. Whatever it was, it made him want to go on a violent rampage and snuff it out. He would need more information on what was going on and so for now, he'd stay quiet and observe the situation.

"Well then Tsu-chan." Ranma began to taunt as she started to stalk around her Sensei like a tiger going on a hunt. Though she would never compare herself to such a monster. "Let's see if you've gotten any slower in your dodding old age."

"Bring it on runt." Tsunade returned and saw Ranma shoot her a dirty look. Poor girl was still short, although a bit top heavy these days.

Anko and Yugao, who had been relaxed as they had watched the master and student circle one another, suddenly came to attention as the girl rushed the Hokage.

"Whoa..." Tenten gasped as she watched the redhead... dance, it almost seemed like, into Tsunade's blunt and hard hitting attacks. Deflecting blows here while countering there, the girl was graceful and fluid in all of her movements.

Sakura who had thus far decided only to afford minimal 'proper' respect to her lack luster senpai, found herself having to reevaluate that opinion. Especially seeing as the girl had just effortlessly deflected one of Tsunade's bone shattering punches and was forcing the Hokage to use ever more complex ninjutsu and taijutsu combinations.

Rock Lee could fully appreciate the taijutsu of the redhead. Taijutsu experts like himself did not tend to worry over much about beauty but more about the effectiveness of attacks to bring their opponents down. Whatever was the best way to get the job done. Granted, grace developed in their movements to be sure but usually as a side benefit. Nothing like the fluidity this girl was showing. 'Gai-sensei! I need to learn how to move like her and if I can't do it it will do 1000 squats with both hand tied behind my back !' He mentally promised himself as his eyes were glued to the match.

Naruto, had he never went on his journey with Jiraiya, would have just thought the girl was running away from his Ba-chan. Now, with better eyes for taijutsu, he marveled at the way the girl simply ducked, weaved and flowed around his Baa-chan's attack before giving his Baa-chan skull ringing hits. How did he know it was skull ringing? He could actually feel the heavy impacts trough the ground from fists smashing into hardened flesh from where he stood.

Ranma knew that Tsunade hated when he switched styles in the middle of a fight, which was great as far as she was concerned. An irritated Tsunade meant a sloppy Tsunade after all. Akido, karate, kempo, kung fu, wu shu and taijutsu(the types that were taught to her at least) had all been woven into her skill set like an artist putting together a tapestry. However like any artist, their work would never good enough and they always seek to improve themselves. Now it was time to show Tsunade that she too had improved greatly.

Tsunade found herself having to really focus to try hit the girl, something that was usually instinctive to her. Yet Ranma's ability to evade and slippery style seemed to be using her instincts against her somehow. She had found so far that for every one hit she landed on her protégée, the redhead tagged her with five. While her constitution was good she could only take so many blows before she would need to start diverting her chakra from offense and defense to heal the damage. That, unfortunately, would be that.

Smirking at her Sensei's attempt to compensate for her aggressive but quick taijutsu moves, Ranma hooked her arm around her Sensei's overextended punch. Planting her feet firmly she outright stole the attack's momentum, converting it into perfect judo throw and planting the Hokage face first into the dirt.

Deciding it was a perfect time to follow up, she pulled her hands back and thrust them forward in tandem as she launched her ki attack. "Moko Takabisha Double Shot!" Ranma shouted as twin orbs of Ki impacted the startled slug sannin, sending her reeling for a second before the woman recovered.

"Two shots this time but you have to do better than that brat!" Tsunade said as she did a quick hand sign and let loose with dozen razor sharp flying explosive tags. These were some of her own work and packed a much higher yield of force than was normally found in such things.

"Need to do better than that Tsu-chan!" Ranma taunted after evading the explosions, only to have her eyes widen upon realizing Tsunade was no longer in front of her. "Crap!"

Tsunade body flickered to the redhead after capitalizing on the cover the explosions had created for her. "Ha!" She shouted as her hand, charged with electricity to overload her student's nervous system, shot down only for her protégée to block the attack with her forearm at the last second.

Gritting her teeth from the electrical current running through her body, Ranma had her Ki work to counter the damage as it was being done to her. Still, she pushed back against her teacher's great strength with her own Ki enhanced muscles.

Something occurred to Sakura as she watched her Sensei apply more pressure to her Senpai's forearm. Having trained first hand with the Hokage she knew how strong the woman was. Yet her Senpai was resisting, quite vigorously judging by how her feet were digging into the ground where she stood. Which should not be possible. Wasn't the girl out of chakra? Was she using... Sakura touched her forehead to be sure but she did not see any diamond shaped seal appear on her Senpai's head. So where was she getting all of this energy from?

Tsunade grinned at Ranma, who returned a cocky smirk of her own. As the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village pushed down on the redhead with one arm she realized she'd need to shake up this little battle of wills. She lashed out with her other arm, aiming for the girl's gut. To her surprise, Ranma's free hand blocked the incoming attack by grabbing her incoming fist to blunt it's momentum. Tsunade could almost admit to being impressed.

Yet Ranma, being Ranma, saw the shift as an opening to exploit. She changed her stance, allowing Tsunade to 'over power' her while using the other attack point as a fulcrum. Bleeding the attack for all it was worth and pivoting with Tsunade's help, Ranma flowed into a handstand. Angled properly and with her Sensei left open, she drove both of her feet into Tsunade's face. Had it just been one kick it might not have fazed the slug princess but Ranma poured in several hundred kicks during the fraction of a second she had open and that sent the Hokage flying.

Tsunade recovered almost instantly from the attack and drew a kunai from her pouch, ready to engage her student in a ninja fist fight. She was pleased to see Ranma had done the same and was about to charge when she felt several Anbu guards headed her way. To Ranma's credit, she noted, the girl sensed them as well and pulled to an abrupt stop.

In a flash of a swirl of leaves, a masked Anbu arrived and whispered something into the Hokage's ear. It was obviously bad news considering the way her expression grew grave.

Ranma, reading the mood, put her kunai away. She then took her Konoha headband from her pouch and tied it loosely around her neck, not knowing that certain milky eyed girl also wore it in the same style.

"Have Ibiki confirm the information and bring me the report." The moment Tsunade finished the order the Anbu nodded affirmatively and then body flickered away.

"Trouble?" Ranma asked seeing the expression on Tsunade's face. At that moment she was struck by the sudden realization that her Sensei was actually really responsible enough to be Hokage. For some reason it made her proud, like seeing one's child grow up.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the pleased look on Ranma's face, mainly because she had a feeling the girl was thinking of something disparaging about her. She couldn't prove it but all those years with the Uzu survivor had given her a sixth sense for those types of things.

"Nothing you need concern yourself with but more importantly, now that I have confirmed that you weren't completely slacking off, you owe me and Shizune an explanation." Tsunade said as she walked up to the redhead.

"Right..." Ranma said while eying the people around them. She had learned more about Jinchuriki during her journey, both the ones in this world and what Herb had told her. "Can we talk in private?" She asked as she looked at Tsunade and Shizune.

With a wave of her hand, Tsunade sent the Anbu guards further away and dismissed both Anko and Yugao from their presence. A look from Shizune had Anko drag the kids with her, much to their chagrin and her amusement.

Doing a quick hand sign with Tsunade once everyone was out of the immediate area and there was no spot for anyone to hide, they looked at the redhead and awaited her explanation. While her home and offices always had ears, whether it be from Root or her own people, out here in the open flat area it was actually harder to eavesdrop without being spotted.

"Well?" Tsunade said crossing her arms across her impressive bust size.

Ranma looked at both his mentor AND Shizune's expectant looks and braced herself for their reaction. "So you know how I had to leave because I said I had something important to do?" She started while fidgeting nervously.

"Yes." Shizune was the one that replied with a dark look. The little girl leaving had hurt her a lot.

Gulping Ranma held up her hand in surrender. "Turns out... I am, what is known in this land, as a Jinchuriki." She dropped the bomb.

Shizune and Tsunade both had stunned looks on their faces. Tsunade in particular was scrutinizing the redhead looking at her from head to toe. She did not disbelieve the redhead. On the contrary, that would be in line with what she knew of the Uzumaki clansman. Still, all these years and she had never suspected that maybe her charge was carrying a tailed beast inside of her? How disgraceful was that? She knew she wasn't as good as Jiraiya in the sealing arts but she wasn't average either.

"Can you show me your seal?" Tsunade asked seriously, wanting to take a look at the Uzumaki clansman's handy work. This would change everything and maybe Naruto, brat that he was, could have someone that would understand what he was going through.

Shizune was looking at girl in silent respect. She could not even imagine the horror of carrying a tailed beast inside of herself. Although Naruto appeared to be doing well.

"Seal?" Ranma asked, puzzled.

"The seal of your tailed beast, where is it? Stomach? Chest? Back?" Tsunade listed the possible places the seal could be applied.

"Uhhh, what seal?" Ranma asked curiously and was taken aback by both the serious expressions on Tsunade and Shizune face.

Narrowing her eyes she looked at Ranma. "Take off your shirt." Tsunade demanded.

"What?!" Ranma shouted in shock. "No way!"

"Apparently you do not know where your seal is, that could be dangerous. Take off your shirt, I need to look." Tsunade ordered in a serious tone of voice, making Ranma halt her protest before sighing.

Taking off her red shirt, which sported a similar design as Tsunade's, Ranma stood exposed for them to see.

"Hmmm," Tsunade mused as her hand touched the girl's stomach and sent a pulse of chakra into her to light the seals up. Frowning she went all over the girl's upper body, sending out little chakra pulses to look for the seals and still saw nothing that would look like any beast seals. On the other hand, the girl's porcelain white skin was starting to make Tsunade envious.

"Ughh... What are you guys doing?" Ranma asked as she felt those little chakra pulse enter her body. The invading energy gave her an icky feeling.

"The pants Shizune," Tsunade said, in full examination mode now. And as Shizune was in full assistant mode, she complied.

Before Ranma could react her pants were around her ankles and her bottom half was in full view. Blushing beet red she glared at her two former traveling companions. Her face got even redder when Tsunade's hand cupped her ass and sent a chakra pulse through that region of her body. "HEY, CUT IT OUT!" She screamed indignantly as she pulled her pants back up and tossed her shirt back on.

Tsunade, startled at the protest, looked at Ranma then looked at Shizune before looking back at the blushing girl. "Okay now, seriously what have you been up to for the past few years." Tsunade said in a flat tone of voice.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused. She noticed Shizune also had a displeased look. "I just told you."

"Jinchuriki have seals that become visible when distressed or flooded with charka." Tsunade explained with a half lidded stare. "You don't have one and I sense nothing."

"Uhh..." Ranma said intelligently as she tried to think of why they couldn't detect her seals. She was almost positive she had them. Then a thought occurred to her. "Maybe it's because they weren't made with Chakra seals?"

"All beasts, tailed or otherwise have chakra in them," Tsunade explained in her teaching tone as she eyed her little red headed companion of some years. "If you do not have any chakra seals, then you do not have a beast in you."

Shizune, next to Tsunade, nodded in agreement. What she knew as Chakra beasts, or tailed beast as they were called, were malevolent in general.

"Ummm, I don't think I have a tailed beast." Ranma explained and saw her two friends looked at her skeptically. "Well I mean they DO have tails just not right now with how I got them trapped."

Tsunade once again tried to use her Chakra senses to detect anything from the smaller red head but came up once again with nothing. The girl seemed convinced she had something sealed in her, yet in all that time traveling she had not exhibited any known traits of a Jinchuriki or any of their benefits. If anything she was bottom of the ladder, as far as Tsunade was concerned, when she first started out.

A brief ludicrous thought occurred to the Slug Princess, the girl did have a high affinity for spiritually based attacks and skills. She called it ki or chi, some crap like that. Maybe, just maybe, it was molded using that energy? However, as quickly as the thought occurred to her, Tsunade dismissed it. Everyone knew, for as long as she had lived, without physical energy to mix with the spiritual side there was no way in hell anyone could mold anything. It simply was not possible.

"Fine, fine. We believe you." Tsunade said making Ranma smile while looking at Shizune and giving a short curt shake of her head that the redhead missed. She'd let Jiraiya examine the girl and if he came up with nothing then... well, she would deal with it if things came to it. As it stood now, the little red head that she sorely missed had returned and appeared to be even stronger then before. "So anything else beside the... tailed beast?"

Ranma cupped her hand to her chin and appeared to be interally debating something before she shrugged. "Well I was finally able to learn a couple of more of my special family style techniques. Quite deadly too." She bragged a bit.

"Oh? And what are these techniques?" Shizune asked curiously. She had been scared when Ranma mentioned the tailed beast but was relieved as Tsunade examination came up negative.

"You see that tree over there?" Ranma said pointing at a fairly ancient tree towering in the distance.

"Yes." Tsunade said with a nod. Then Ranma said 'Raishu' something under her breath and, with a flick of her arm, launched a nearly invisible air current attack. The ripple in the air sliced not only through the thick tree but several more trees behind it so cleanly they may as well not have been in the way. That was a deadly wind attack and she hadn't used chakra to produce it.

Even Shizune was kind of taken aback by the technique. If Ranma had even so much as fired that off wrong then any of them could have been suddenly amputated. Everyone knew wind attacks were the trickiest of all the elements.

"Impressive," Tsunade said honestly. The uses for that and with that distance... if Ranma could refine it, she would be even deadlier. She saw Ranma fidgeting in place, not knowing the verdict of where they stood now that they had for all intents and purposes aired out their grievances. She'd already taken her pound of flesh from the redhead and so could now focus on integrating her to keep her close by. Besides, she missed the annoying little pain in the ass. "As of right now you will be an active Konoha Genin."

"Really?" Ranma started a bit, surprised that they had accept her explanation of her missing years even as she processed Tsunade's statement. While she herself held no loyalty to Konoha she did feel attachment to Tsunade who was, unbelievably to her, the leader of this city. She was not going to call it a village, because no village was this big. So while she might be working for Konoha in name, she really would be working for Tsunade. "Gotcha."

"Good, I'll determine where to put you soon. No Chunin test, yet, but any Genin squad would be carried by you and not get experience. Add to the fact your other special... abilities." Tsunade pondered the problem with a frown, furrowing her eyebrows as if in deep thoughts.

"Well, team 7 is missing a person..." Shizune interjected into Tsunade's thoughts.

"Yeah but that damn Danzo's been pushing for one of his own to be assigned to the squad, citing trust issues when it comes to apprehending Sasuke. The council agreed with him." Tsunade muttered, not even trying to hide her distaste at the politicking that was going on.

"Who says it has to be only three?" Shizune prompted, once more looking at her mentor.

"Hmmm," Tsunade 'hmm'ed, tapping her cheek before turning to the redhead. "Well brat, I have Hokage stuff to do but I can't do it looking dirty. You can follow Shizune around after we get cleaned up."

"Right." Ranma said as she looked down at her battered clothes. "Where will I be staying?"

Tsunade and Shizune gave the redhead a look that just screamed that she must be stupid if she hadn't figured it out.

"Ah right... heh heh. I knew that." Ranma muttered bashfully. She hadn't known if she'd still be that welcome but her heart warmed that she was. It made her feel like she belonged, which was a feeling she'd missed.

"Alright then, let's go to the public women's bath!" Tsunade cheered as she held Ranma's shoulder and pulled her along.

"Huh? No, wait! Not again!" Ranma protested immediately but was still dragged along by the great strength of the blond.

TBC...

AN: So This chapter turned out to be a lot longer then I wanted it to be O+O, you can thank my editors for asking me to flesh out certain things making it longer :D I find that I don't need to describe everything in heavy detail but just give enough info so that you yourself could fill in the blank. For those that is not enjoying the story, well , that is unfortunate. For those that are, awesome!

I also didn't realize from the comments from some of the reviewers that the whole bone crushing spine breaking punishment was that big of a deal. I was mimicking the violent comedy from Ranma and Naruto for fun. I didn't realize that it might have seem overly excessive even by my editor standards. I still don't but I guess I'll try and tone it down a bit and see how it goes.

AS for what is going on in this chapter, well it's just the beginning of how Ranma affect Naruto as with how Naruto world changed Ranma and of course further the mystery. Again, feel free to speculate, Already I have received lots of assumptions via PM or reviews and they seem to make up their own mind where things are gonna go, such is the drawback of writing a mystery fic, for those that are sticking with it, thanks :D

I am trying for the whole Kishimoto feel with seeding crap early in the series and then coming back to it to linking it up :D Take for instance the newly introduce Reverse Harem not Jutsu by Nartuo in the latest chapters. As for the attack Ranma used, I seen some weird crazy jutsu from Naruto and ran it through several editors and beta readers, those moves that Ranma do is plausible according to them. So I am gonna run with it :D

As for what is going on inside Ranma mind scape with Herb, feel free to speculate :D

Now to clear up a misconception, the stats that i posted in the last chapter was pre- time skip. Tsunade put it in the books as a registered Nin of Konoha , people assume that was Ranma current status. That is not. This is Ranma current Status.

And that's Ranma current Status :D Intelligence is such a subjective word. Are we talking about combat intelligence? Emotional intelligence? Rationale intelligence? The number assigned to that stats is so sporadic for every single Konaha shinobi that doesn't fit in with their archetype at all. So for Tsunade it's TBD for now as Ranma could be great one moment and dumb ass the next.

Thanks for all those who left a review :D

As always C+C welcome Reviews Appreciated.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.